Process of treating wood



UNITED STATES 'ATENT. OFFICE.

LEONIDAS N. LYON, OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

rnocnss or TREATING WOOD.

I o Drawing.

To-all whom it may concern: 1

Be it known that I, LEONIDAS N. LYON, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Antonio, in' the county of Bexar and State of Texas, have invented a new and useful Process of Treating Wood, of which the following is a specification.

It is the object of this invention to provide a novel method for treating wood. The word wood is intended to cover the substances usually designated 'as timber, lumber, poles, post's, etc.

As to the treating, the process relates primaril to the drying and preservation of the wood? but it contemplates, also, the treating of the wood with an'insecticide of some kind.

By way of explanation it may be stated that under the present practice, wherein wood is dried in a kiln, the moisture in the wood is converted into steamby the application of heat up to a certain point, beyond which it is unsafe to heat the wood lest conflagration occur. The steam thus produced collects to a greater or less de ee within the kiln chamber, and condens tion takes place, the moisture being again absorbed by the wood, to be reexpelled by the application of heat. It is obvious that a procedure of the kind mentioned is time-consuming. The foregoing being understood, it may be stated that one object of this invention is to provide a novel process whereby when the moisture' has been driven out of the wood, the moisture will not be absorbed again by the wood.

In known processes, the wood is dried in kilns, and the wood comes from the kiln with its pores open and ready to take in more moisture whenever the occasion presents itself. The processes hereinafter-described aim to overcome this dlfficulty.

. Carryin out the process contemplates a container lled with a substance the precise composition of which may be varied, asoccasion may demand. The substance may be a wax, such as mineral parafiin or,itmay' be tar, pitch or asphaltum. It may be an oil such as creosote oil, castor oil, or a combination of oils, a combination of waxes, a wax and one or more oils, or an oil and one or Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Jun 21 1921 Application filed November 3, 1919. Serial No. 385,470.

more waxes. In any event, the substance has a specific gravity greater than that of steam, the flaming point of said substance belng above the vaporizing point of water.

Heat is applied to the container until the substance therein is brought to a higher temperature than the boiling point of water,

densation cannot be reabsorbed by the wood,

for the reason that the heated substance in the container serves as an efl'ective seal or barrier. resins in the wood will be heated and diffused through the wood, the result being that the wood will be preserved.

When the wood is removed from the container, the wood retains for a period of'time, a telniperature approximately that of the heate substance from which the wood has been withdrawn. As a consequence, much of the heated substance will drain off the wood. If it is desired to retain .a given amount of the material in or on the wood,

Further, some of the oils and this result can be secured by quickening the I cooling of the wood in any suitable way.

It may be desirable to apply an insecticide to the wood and when this result is desired, the wood may be boiled in 'an insecticide, the flaming point of which is above the boiling point of water: or, if desired, an insecticide may be mixed with a wax orwaxes, an

oil or oils, or a combination -of those sub-v the below the flaming point of the medium; im-- mersing the wood, in a natural state, in the medium, maintaining the Wood immersed my own, I have hereto aflixed my signature until the moisture in the Wood converted in the presence of tWo Witnesses. into steam and rises throng t 6 medium, and Withdrawing the Wood from the me- LEONIDAS LYON 5 dium leaving the Wood sealed by the medium Witnesses:

to prevent 'a reabsorption of moisture. -GEo. M. CLIFTON,

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as J. MITCHELL DAVIS. 

